Fabric venetian blind and method of fabrication

Abstract

A method of making a fabric Venetian blind comprises helical winding of a narrow, elongated strip, which, when properly overlapped and bonded along longitudinal glue lines, will form the vanes and front and rear facings of the blind. The strips may be formed of a single, uniform material, or of adjacent, longitudinally extending portions of relatively opaque and relatively translucent fabric. An alternative embodiment uses the same winding technique to similarly form a structure of only translucent fabric, but with pockets for subsequent insertion of opaque vanes. Several alternative strip configurations and assembly arrangements are disclosed. The disclosed method and structure may also be used to form products for other applications.

We claim:  
     
       1. For use in a fabric Venetian blind of the type having front and rear panels formed of sheer fabric and joined by a series of spaced, parallel, light-controlling vanes formed of relatively opaque material, and wherein each adjacent pair of vanes and the portions of the front and rear panels between such vane pair define a longitudinally extending cell-like structure, the height of such cell being defined by the distance between two adjacent vanes when the blind is in its maximum light-transmitting condition, the improved two-element fabric strip which comprises: 
       first and second light-transmitting strip portions oriented in a generally parallel array and having an extended length dimension which is greater than their respective transverse width dimensions;  
       the transverse widths of said first and second light-transmitting strip portions partially overlapping each other by a distance which approximates the height of the cell, with the non-overlapped portions of each of said strip portions also having transverse widths which approximate the height of the cell, said strip portions being joined to each other along longitudinally extending lines adjacent their respective overlapping longitudinal edges, and the opposed overlapping portions of said strip portions between said lines of joinder defining an unjoined zone which is adapted to become a longitudinally extending pocket suitable for receiving a relatively opaque vane insert;  
       whereby when a fabric Venetian blind is formed of said two-element fabric strips, one of said front and rear panels will be comprised of said non-overlapping portion of said first light-transmitting strip portions, and the other of said front and rear panels will be comprised of said non-overlapping portion of said second light-transmitting strip portions, and said light-controlling vanes will be comprised of said vane insert-containing pocket.